(E.A. Part 2)

Our first day of the trip was in Rome, Italy. It was a really new experience for me because it was the first time I've been independent and away from my family. My group and I were very tired because we were running on literally no sleep. We lost sleep actually. We spent the beginning of the day in the airport. We all got off the plane, got our bags, went through customs, and then met our guild who's name was Johannes. He was a pro and he spoke 7 different languages. After we introduced ourselves, we walked out of the airport and into a really hot and dry area. Our bus was awaiting us outside. It was the bus we rode on for the entire trip so we really got to know our bus driver. His name was Gary and he was awesome! He has 4 kids and his family owned a transportation system. Anyway, we got on the bus and we were greeted by thirty-four other kids from Pittsburgh. We all became great friends really quickly! As soon as we got introduced we took an hour long bus ride through Rome. There was a lot of graffiti and artwork everywhere. We were dropped off in the middle of the city and we walked to the Coliseum. It was a giant structure and it looked very old. There were street vendors walking around everywhere selling little trinkets. We split up into groups and I went with the four other Indianians. We took tons of pictures and got postcards and little toys for our siblings. Once our independent time was over, we grouped up and got ready to tour the coliseum. We got an Italian guild and she spoke really fast. It was kind of hard to understand her. We walked up and down and all around the Coliseum and learned a lot of neat facts. Like how it took two centuries to build. It was also where the city would gather to watch battles or public trials. It could was a really interesting place and it had a huge past. Once the tour was over we walked through the city to a pizza place the was runned by two brothers. It was really good and we had time to tour a big Church that was right next to it. I bought a little motorcycle model for my brother in one of the close shops. We were done touring and the bus picked us up at about 9:30pm. We got back to our first hotel at about 10:15pm. We got our room keys and went to bed. I had roomed with a kid named Kaiden. He was pretty cool and had an interesting life story. We unpacked and stayed up for about an hour listening to the rooms radio, which was attached to the walls. That was our first day and it was really fun.